This Party is LIT!

Celebrating Learning Innovation & Technology

If you love exploring what’s really possible in learning tech, you’re in the right place.

Coming Up Next: Live & In-Person

A learning innovation & technology conference for people building what’s next

This Party is LIT! (short for Learning Innovation & Technology) is a one-day, in-person conference where we pull back the curtain on learning tech and see what’s inside. Innovative new solutions, prototypes and pilots, and established technology providers. We want to see it all! A full day of real demos, raw ideas, and energizing conversations with people who are doing great work — and sharing how.

We’re bringing together bold thinking, practical insight, and the people shaping what’s next in learning. And we hope you’ll join us.

What To Expect?

Show & Tells and Deep Dives: Real builds, real experiments, real learning tech.

New Tech Demos: Get into the details — workflows, code, hacks, and happy accidents welcome.

Curious Collaborators: Connect with fellow builders, innovators, and experimenters.

This is a day for the doers — the ones making learning tech more usable, more human, and more LIT.

Why Attend?

LEARN from builders, innovators, and tech-forward L&D pros.

EXPLORE the real behind-the-scenes of learning tech — not just the shiny slides.

CONNECT with a curious, generous, and wildly talented community.

BE PART OF WHAT’S NEXT in Learning Innovation & Technology

Event Details

Location: In Person | The Marsal Family School of Education (located on U-M’s central campus)

610 E. University Avenue
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1259

When: May 8, 2026 | All day

Tickets

Early-bird: Ended March 31, 2026
General Admission: $55, includes lunch.
Students: FREE! Contact [email protected] to request a student discount code.

Explore the Learning Innovation & Technology (LIT) sessions & speakers below.

Learning Innovation & Technology (LIT) Sessions

Guided AI for Learning: Designing and Demoing Learning Bots with Mobile Coach

Generative AI has made it incredibly easy to build learning experiences that are conversational, adaptive, and open-ended. In many situations, that flexibility is exactly what learners want. But organizations often need something more intentional. They invest in learning programs designed to reinforce specific knowledge, support behavior change, and align with business priorities. That requires structure, guidance, and measurable outcomes.

In this session, Vince Han (founder of Mobile Coach) will demonstrate how learning teams can design guided AI learning experiences that combine the adaptability of GenAI with structured learning pathways.

Through a live demo of the Mobile Coach Platform, you’ll see how a traditional linear eLearning course can be transformed into an interactive chatbot experience. The bot can deliver learning activities such as videos and exercises while also enabling discussion, generating personalized scenarios, proactively reinforcing key ideas, administering assessments, and recording learning data in an LMS or database.

But blending generative and deterministic design introduces new challenges. What happens when learners behave in ways you didn’t anticipate? How tightly should pathways be defined without making the experience feel rigid? And where do rules help—or create operational complexity?

Using real bot examples, this session will walk through the design decisions behind guided AI learning systems and the practical tradeoffs teams face when implementing them.

You’ll leave with a clearer framework for deciding when to guide, when to flex, and how to design AI learning experiences that are both engaging for learners and purposeful for organizations.

Speaker(s)

Vince Han

Mobile Coach

From Black Box to Glass Box: Building an AI That Explains Why Your Learners Are About to Drop Out

Many online courses lose the vast majority of their enrolled learners; most platforms only tell you about it after it’s already happened.

In this Show & Tell, I’ll demo Amani, an open-source learning intelligence layer I’ve been building from scratch that predicts learner dropout risk using explainable AI. Unlike the analytics baked into your learning platform, Amani works across platforms (anything that speaks xAPI), and every prediction comes with a plain-language explanation: not just “this learner is high risk,” but “here’s what’s driving it and here’s what to do about it.”

I’ll walk through a live demo of the full pipeline: ingesting xAPI learning events, engineering behavioral features from raw activity data, generating risk predictions with a LightGBM gradient boosting model, and surfacing SHAP-powered explanations through an interactive dashboard. You’ll see cohort-level risk heatmaps, individual learner drill-downs with force plots that show exactly which behaviors are protective and which are red flags, and intervention recommendations matched to each learner’s specific risk profile.

This session connects directly to the LIT themes of building with transparency, making AI practical for learning teams, and pulling back the curtain on how modern learning technologies actually work under the hood. I’ll share the real architectural decisions, trade-offs, and lessons learned from building an ML system for education.

Attendees will leave with concrete patterns they can apply whether they’re building learning tools, evaluating AI vendors, or just trying to understand what’s behind the predictions.

Speaker(s)

Haitham Gasim

Tech Innovation for Impact: AI and UX Driving the Future of Inclusive Mobility and Tourism

An innovative AI-based digital platform designed to empower individuals with mobility impairments by enhancing their overall well-being and mental health. This app enables users to confidently explore accessible destinations and services. It is specifically designed to meet the needs and expectations of the wheelchair community, fostering inclusion and breaking down barriers.

The platform aims to improve mobility, social participation, independence, and mental well-being by encouraging users to engage in recreational and social activities. It also enables them to confidently explore both domestic and international accessible travel destinations through interactive maps, AI assistance, real-time navigation, community support, budget planning, and a journey guide.

This session will delve into the research, challenges, and design innovations that drive the creation of an inclusive and accessible mobility platform. Participants will gain insight into how human-centered design can break down barriers, foster independence, and build a world where all people can thrive.

Speaker(s)

Shima Solati

Teaching Machines to Talk Back (So Learners Can Talk Better)

Our communication simulator was designed with a clear priority: deliver authentic, psychologically safe practice while remaining scalable, affordable, and instructionally meaningful. Early design decisions focused on identifying must-have features—realistic conversational flow, guided decision-making, and actionable feedback—versus nice-to-have enhancements that add polish but significantly increase cost. This forced thoughtful tradeoffs, especially around avatar realism, voice variation, and advanced analytics, ensuring the core learning experience remained intact without overengineering the solution.

One of the primary technical and organizational challenges was balancing realism with accessibility. Learners need avatars that feel human enough to engage with comfortably, including appropriate facial expressions, tone shifts, and emotional responses—yet achieving this at scale requires careful choices around rendering, voice synthesis, and performance. Another challenge was designing meaningful feedback loops. We explored how to integrate live or near-real-time AI-driven debriefing so learners can engage in back-and-forth self-assessment rather than passively receiving scores or summaries.

What worked particularly well was the simulator’s ability to surface learning gaps through conversation itself—misconceptions, hesitation, and decision patterns became visible in ways traditional assessments rarely capture. What surprised us was how quickly learners formed rapport with the avatars, even before full visual realism was achieved. If we were to do it again, we would invest earlier in adaptive debriefing workflows that blend automated insights with facilitated reflection.

Within a broader learning ecosystem, the communication simulator functions as a bridge between theory and performance—integrating with courses, tutoring tools, dashboards, and coaching workflows. It doesn’t replace instruction; it amplifies it by transforming practice into data-rich, confidence-building learning experiences.

Speaker(s)

Cindy Fenske

csiSIM

Learning through Engagement

Change the way people learn by using interactivity in video. Experience next-level engagement through Clixie AI’s AI-powered tools.

Key Takeaway:

Folks will learn new ways to enange lrearners through an AI-Powered interactive video platform.

Speaker(s)

Tim Moore

Clixie AI

How to make your own AI Coach

Discover how artificial intelligence can transform the way you approach performance support and training. In this interactive session, we’ll explore how to design AI-powered coaching abilities right within your authoring tools (like Storyline/Rise) and in your LMS – that make learning more personalized, engaging, and scalable for your employees.

Imagine creating training experiences that feel like one-on-one coaching—where employees can practice real-world scenarios, get instant feedback, and receive support tailored to their unique needs. We’ll dive into practical ways to use AI to build role-play simulations, assess open-text responses, and deliver real-time, actionable feedback that drives better learning outcomes.

Best of all, you’ll come out of session having made your own unique AI Coach using limited-time access to Artha’s AIReady Studio. This session will equip you with the foundational knowledge and skills to start building effective AI-powered coaching interactions that fit your goals and resources.

Key Takeaways:

Understand the fundamentals of AI-powered coaching and its applications in corporate training
Learn how to design AI-driven role-plays and simulations for real-world skill development
Explore methods for providing personalized feedback and adaptive learning experiences
Gain insights into leveraging AI to improve employee engagement and performance
Participate in hands-on activities and discussions to spark ideas for your organization

This session is perfect for corporate trainers, instructional designers, HR professionals, and L&D leaders who are interested in exploring innovative technologies to enhance employee training and development.

Speaker(s)

Garima Gupta

Artha Learning Inc.

Reining it in - AI in Practice Scenarios

We all know GenAI can have a mind of its own, the double-edged sword of unpredictability. With practice scenarios, it’s important to give GenAI enough information to be valuable while maintaining a tight enough leash to be reliable and consistent(-ish).

We’ll talk about how we created simple but effective (and scalable) practice scenarios for real-world skills on the job.

Speaker(s)

Matt Kliewer

TorranceLearning

Experience Innovation: Redefining Accessible Parking Experience & Mobility

Experience Innovation: Redefining Accessible Parking Experience & Mobility, introduces a human-centered digital platform that transforms how individuals with disabilities navigate the challenges of accessible parking. Rooted in inclusive UX design and equity-driven innovation, the project reimagines mobility through intuitive, dignified, and data-informed solutions.

Attendees will explore the research, co-design methods, and prototypes developed to address everyday barriers, such as the scarcity, misuse, and inaccessibility of parking spaces for wheelchair users. The event includes a pre-recorded teaser and a live presentation followed by an open Q&A session.

Speaker(s)

Hoda Solati

Rethink learning delivery: Imagine your LMS was optional

Build Capable XCL challenges the assumptions of the traditional learning platform. It isn’t another platform to manage. It’s a precision tool designed for the moments when a platform gets in the way. When your audience is remote, temporary, external, or constantly changing, XCL gives you a faster, simpler path forward.

Instead of onboarding users into an LMS, XCL delivers training through a simple link. No accounts to create. No seats to manage. No menus to navigate. Just immediate access and meaningful data.

In this session, I’ll demonstrate the XCL tool using real-world scenarios you encounter every day. You’ll see how XCL removes the most common friction points of platform-based learning, while still capturing rich performance data. I’ll walk through how to create clean, branded links that are professional, simple to use, and easy to share.

We’ll explore the wide range of content formats XCL supports and the many ways you can distribute those links to reach your audience wherever they are. We’ll also look beyond training into certification, performance support, internal resources, and curated weblinks, including strategies for reaching audiences outside your network.

XCL is the least opinionated tracking tool in this space. It adapts to how you work, not the other way around.

Speaker(s)

Rob Christie

Is Your LMS Holding Your Data Hostage? Use Delegates to Play xAPI Content & Free Your Data

Learning teams are increasingly interested in xAPI for its ability to measure and capture granular learning and performance data. Yet many organizations remain tied to LMSs that either lack xAPI support entirely or make it unnecessarily difficult to access the data they do collect. In this session, we’ll explore how the Delegates feature in Veracity Launch provides a practical bridge for legacy SCORM‑based LMSs to a modern learning ecosystem with xAPI content and analytics.

Behind the scenes, Veracity Launch remotely plays the content, sends xAPI statements to any conformant LRS, and returns familiar SCORM progress and completion data back into the LMS. This enables support for your xAPI-based content in your current LMS without requiring an LMS replacement.

Speaker(s)

Jason Haag

Veracity Technology Consultants

You Don't Comprehend The Agile Mindset Until You Play a Game

Board games can teach me how to be agile? Can I really have a blast playing games AND be enlightened?! Oh yeah, sign me up!

Being agile means doing agile things. Be ready to explore the agile mindset with games, conversations, experimentation, and fast paced fun. Learning is best by doing. Have a blast makes it so much more enjoyable. Let the gaming begin!

Speaker(s)

Neal Rowland

From Classroom to Client: Building Learning AI

AI Business Group (ABG) is a student-run organization that partners with clients to design and implement AI-enabled solutions that support learning and operational workflows. This session focuses on ABG’s work both as a contributor to AI-supported learning and workflow processes and as a workforce development pipeline for Michigan students.

Centered on an ABG client project in which AI was involved in workflow support, this session examines how student teams collaborate with professional organizations to design applied AI systems. To ground the discussion, we draw on two specific examples: a supply chain automation project and an AI-powered voice customer service bot. These examples illustrate how AI systems can support decision-making, reduce manual effort, and integrate into existing workflows without replacing human expertise.

We explore how technical and organizational constraints shaped system design, including tradeoffs between automation, reliability, transparency, and user trust. We also discuss how learning goals, user readiness, and organizational context affect whether AI solutions are adopted and sustained over time.

Beyond the client work itself, this session examines ABG as a force for workforce development. We discuss how ABG builds student skillsets through professional development conferences and structured project teams, and how these experiences prepare students to contribute meaningfully to learning technology and workflow ecosystems.

This session offers a realistic look at what worked, what did not, and what we would do differently when building AI systems that must function in real environments.

This session is intended for learning technologists, L&D practitioners, and product teams interested in applied AI and workforce development.

Speaker(s)

U-M AI Business Group

Simulation Studio: Integrating AI into ViewPoint for Rapid Role-Play Development

This workshop is presented jointly by ViewPoint Simulations and the Empowered Teaching Initiative, with a shared goal of making engaged, experiential learning opportunities accessible to educators by offering experiences that scale. The workshop will provide a demo of the ViewPoint software platform and explore how AI can be embedded in the ViewPoint platform to streamline custom role-playing simulation creation and to expand access to these engaged learning opportunities for a wide range of teachers and learners.

ViewPoint is a SaaS platform that supports custom multi-player educational role-playing simulations. Built at the University of Michigan, ViewPoint allows educators and instructional designers to create and implement engaging activities that align with their unique learning objectives.

ViewPoint contains three feature sets:

Its Create features includes templates and an intuitive user interface to allow educators to quickly and confidently build interactive activities in the platform.
Its Facilitate features allow instructors to interact with students during the simulation activity through announcements and messages; monitor their engagement; and make adjustments to the activity in real time.
Its Participate features contain resources such as an interactive calendar and shared case materials that learners use to complete the activity; communication tools to support peer-to-peer interactions; and feedback channels through surveys and peer reviews.

Based on hundreds of customer discovery interviews over the past ~6 years, we recognize that the barriers to adoption for many educators remain prohibitive, especially the time and effort required to create custom simulation activities. Our product road map incorporates AI into the Create feature set (with plans for additional applications in the future). By merging existing frameworks for activity creation and training a large language model on these frameworks, as well as on activities implemented across more than 40 institutions over the past decade of real classroom simulations, we are developing AI-powered tools that significantly reduce creation time while preserving pedagogical integrity. We are eager to learn from the LIT community about their experiences and practices with AI in similar contexts.

We invite participants to consider how they might use role-playing simulations to achieve their learning objectives and to demo the ViewPoint platform with their own applications.

Speaker(s)

Elisabeth Gerber

Everstory: the first free voice & visual encyclopedia app for pre-readers

Everstory is the first free voice and visual encyclopedia app for pre-readers. Everstory is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization developed and supported by an international team of volunteers across disciplines including education, information science, computer science, business, law, cognitive science, ecology and evolutionary biology, engineering, and art.

In this session, participants will learn some of the story of the app, the problem it aims to solve, and its development.

Participants will learn how a team of volunteers created a tool on limited funds to be given away for free amid extensive for-profit competition in a time of otherwise AI utopian euphoria. Participants will learn how our team kept focus on the child–the user–the need and the solution and kept going steadily over the past five years.

Speaker(s)

Garret Potter

Learning Innovation & Technology (LIT) Speakers

Cindy Fenske

Dr. Cindy Fenske is the Co-Founder, Chief Education Officer and General Manager at CSIsim, an EdTech startup delivering AI-powered simulation-based learning and training solutions for education, healthcare, and workforce development. At CSIsim, she provides strategic leadership across product innovation, assessment, and operations, helping organizations adopt scalable, immersive tools that improve learning outcomes, critical thinking, and professional competence.

Prior to founding CSIsim, Dr. Fenske served as Founding Dean of Nursing at Concordia University Ann Arbor (CUAA), where she launched the nursing program in 2015 and created a competency-based, simulation-driven curriculum that positioned CUAA as a national model for immersive, faith-integrated learning. She also directed the Center for Simulation and Innovation (CSI), which she established in 2018 with donor support to help faculty design emotionally engaging learning experiences. Through this center, she mentored faculty across disciplines in the use of simulation, video, and AR/VR technologies to strengthen student learning, retention, and integration of faith into professional practice.

Earlier in her career, Dr. Fenske was a faculty leader at the University of Michigan School of Nursing, where she contributed to the development of one of the country’s most robust simulation programs. Her work has influenced experiential education models across higher education and healthcare.

Garret Potter

Elisabeth Gerber

Garima Gupta

Garima Gupta is the Founder & CEO of Artha Learning Inc., a full-service, award-winning Learning design firm based in Toronto, Canada. With over 20 years of experience in Learning & Development, training, digital marketing, content creation, education, and software engineering, Garima is a passionate learning designer and entrepreneur. She leads her team in creating learning solutions that are innovative, effective, engaging, and impactful, with a particular focus on creatively employing AI in L&D.

As a business consultant and educator, Garima has worked across diverse industries, earning recognition for her contributions to the field. Under her leadership, Artha Learning has received numerous international accolades, including multiple Brandon Hall Awards, TMG Network Choice Awards, and various honors from Hermes, IMA, Marcom, and the International eLearning Association.

She contributes to the industry through her roles on advisory committees, including the University of Victoria’s Certificate in Adult and Continuing Education and ATD’s Program Advisory Committee. Garima has also taught a graduate diploma in eLearning design and development at Queen’s College, Mississauga. As a board member for the Institute for Performance and Learning Chapter, she supports the wider L&D community in Canada. Passionate about the transformative power of education, her company sponsors the full operational costs of ten primary schools in remote parts of India.

Haitham Gasim

Haitham is a solutions architect and software engineer with over 20 years of experience building enterprise software, cloud platforms, and API-driven systems. He has also done extensive work in applied data science, deep learning, computer vision, and technology ethics.

Haitham is currently exploring how AI can enhance learning systems, not just with better predictions, but with transparency and explainability that educators can actually trust.

Hoda Solati

Hoda Solati is an award-winning UX/UI designer, researcher, and speaker specializing in human-centered design, accessibility, and emerging technologies. She leads UX initiatives at BraunAbility, creating innovative solutions that enhance mobility and independence for people with disabilities. Her work bridges design, technology, and storytelling across AI, accessibility, and immersive experiences (AR/VR/XR), transforming complex challenges into intuitive, impactful products.

Internationally recognized for her contributions to digital innovation, Hoda is a frequent speaker and active voice in advancing inclusive, human-centered design.

Jason Haag

Lee Dale

Matt Kliewer

Matt’s days are spent coding unique learning solutions for clients, building really functional user interfaces for 3rd party learning systems, and consulting on data structures and platforms for clients. Matt’s experience with xAPI makes him invaluable to our clients.

Matt’s background in elearning development, computer graphics, 3-D animation, and film-making give him unique insight to the needs of learning developers.

Neal Rowland

Neal has been an author, educator, instructor, course designer, and innovator for the last 20 years. He has helped thousands of people learn more about project and product management and associated concepts. Neal blends creativity, academic knowledge, and practical experience to deliver unique and imaginative content. Using board games, comics, interactivity, video, humor, and more to make content more engaging and effective.

Currently a developer of apps, video courses, and learning content, he also works as an Agile Coach for the University of South Florida and as a Global Product Manager for Stellantis.

Neal holds certifications in PMP and PMI-ACP, was a contributor to the PMBOK, and he also has certifications in ITIL, SAFe, and Scrum.

Rob Christie

Rob is an experienced full-stack developer, engineering team manager, product development strategist, and coach and mentor to many talented software engineers.

His career in computer software has given him an opportunity to experience a myriad of different roles in a variety of industries. Through that experience Rob has gained knowledge and wisdom specifically suited for leadership of software development and product teams.

He is hands-on and prefers to have one finger on the pulse of all development activities and another in the code. He can normally provide a unique point-of-view on challenges engineers are facing and unblock problematic or time-consuming issues.

Shima Solati

Shima Solati is an award-winning UX/UI designer and researcher, HCI specialist, and product experience designer at BraunAbility. She focuses on improving the accessibility and usability of both digital and physical products, translating complex user needs into thoughtful, real-world solutions that enhance everyday experiences.

With a multidisciplinary approach, she addresses complex challenges through design, research, and emerging technologies. Shima brings a diverse background spanning AI, VR, AR, robotics, and accessibility-focused design, positioning her as a versatile expert in both immersive and assistive technologies.

Her work bridges these domains to create experiences that are both inclusive and forward-thinking, strengthening user trust while delivering meaningful value for both users and organizations.

Tim Moore

Tim Moore is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 35 years of experience in launching, acquiring, growing, and exiting companies within multiple verticals in 9 countries. Mr. Moore has helped implement product success strategies for some of the world’s largest companies, such as Google and Telefonica. As CEO of Clixie AI, he oversees strategy, partner platform sales & brand awareness; while specializing in EdTech/Training solutions for Public Sector (Government, Health Care and Education) partnered with Cisco, Microsoft, Zoom and Instructure.

U-M AI Business Group

Vince Han

Vince Han is the founder and CEO of Mobile Coach and an advisor to organizations on how to use AI with clear strategic intent to help people learn better, perform better, and drive stronger business outcomes. An MIT Sloan MBA and serial entrepreneur, Vince works with global companies to design AI-powered coaching and performance support that fits into the flow of work.

His focus is on moving beyond experimentation and building systems that guide behavior, reinforce learning, and improve execution at scale. He is particularly interested in how small, well-timed moments of support can shape how people think, decide, and act on the job.

Vince regularly speaks with executive teams, learning leaders, and industry groups, where he shares practical perspectives on how AI can be used to improve real-world performance. He is known for making complex ideas clear and actionable, helping organizations move forward with confidence.

Sponsorship Opportunities

Want to align your brand with bold thinking and brilliant tech in learning? We’re building something special with This Party is LIT, and we’re always open to conversations with potential sponsors who share our passion for innovation and community.

While there are no pre-set sponsorship packages currently, we’re actively exploring creative ways to collaborate. If you’re interested in supporting the event, the community, or the cohort experience that follows—let’s talk.

Let’s build something LIT together.